The Rev. Bob Brown, a pastor and IBM project manager who helped lead a movement that drew attention to racial disparities in education and other areas of life in Fayette County, died Sunday. He was 82.
“Bob was a strong education advocate,” said P.G. Peeples, president and CEO of the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County. “He gave his all for the betterment of our community and especially our kids.”
Brown was a former board chairman of the Lexington Housing Authority and was one of the earliest members of the Fayette County Public Schools Equity Council.
He also was part of the African American Education Coalition, which included Peeples, the Rev. C.B. Akins, state Rep. George Brown and the late John Wigginton, Akins said.
“Five of us kind of hung together and tried to make things better in Lexington,” Akins said. “You couldn’t get anything past Bob.”
He said the group insisted that the state stop “hiding the achievement gap” by releasing only composite scores. They also worked to get the police department to address traffic stops targeting Black residents and took on a local bank that decided to disband a branch of its business that had catered to Black churches, Akins said.